
Class _6V^i5:ai 

Book -Ks ^ 

Gopyiight^i" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



XLhc 
Spiritual Xife. 



©liver BbMson IRlnaaburi?. 



•Mew lorft, 

Hmerfcan XTract Society* 

t50 massau Street. 



T r;^ I IB- *Fv Or ^ 

CO^:GRES3, 
Two Copies Rbceived 

fAM. 12 1902 

Copyright entry 
h'Lct vt / - f i\or- 
CLASS^cu XXa No. 

COPY 3^ _ ^ 






Copyright, 1902, 
By AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 





Contents* 




1. 


Morsbip, « « « 


11. 


2. 


/Roralits, * * 


39. 


3. 


Service, « * « 


65. 


4. 


Communion, * * 


91. 



jforeworb. 



^'0 living mil that shalt endure 

When all that seems shall suffer shock, 
Rise in the spiritual rock, 
Flow through our deeds and make them 
pureJ' 



For they that are after the flesh do mind 
the things of the flesh; but they that are after 
the Spirit J the things of the Spirit, For the 
mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of 
the Spirit is life and peace. 

Romans 8 : 5, 6. (R. V.) 



^be Spiritual Xife. 

The Spiritual Life is not a sub- 
limated sort of thing, too much in 
the clouds for the wear and tear 
of earth. On the other hand, our 
conception of it must not be low 
and inadequate. Our standard 
must be no lower than the line 
drawn in the Bible, it must be as 
lofty as the example of Jesus 
Christ. Religious living is not a 
cheap thing, yet the scriptural 
idea of it is practicable. It is the 
only true life for man. 



Uhc Spftftual Xff e* 



There are four main elements 
that enter into the Spiritual Life — 
Worship, Morality, Service, Com- 
mimion. Each of these contrib- 
utes its share. While it will not 
do to develop one of these at the 
expense of the others, the Spir- 
itual Life is not complete with- 
out them all. North, South, East, 
West make up the circle of the 
globe. 

There is nothing here, it would 
seem, that is not level to the 
thought and undertaking of every 
one. The Spiritual Life has to 
do with eternal verities, because 
man is immortal, but it has to do 
with them in a very practical way, 
suited to everyday use. Thus, it 
is fitting the soul for the great 
change when it drops the body and 
passes into the open vision of God. 



tTbe Spiritual %itc. 



Worship here — better worship 
there. Goodness here — perfect 
goodness there. Some measure of 
service here — sinless and tireless 
service there. Communion with 
God even here — there the ineffable 
rapture of complete fellowship 
with him forever and forever. 



I. mHorsbip. 



^^ Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers ^ 
Whose loves in higher love endure; 
What souls possess themselves so pure, 
Or is there blessedness like theirs f " 



worship the Lord in the beauty of holi- 
ness: fear before him all the earth. 

Psalm 96 : 9. 

The hour Cometh^ and now iSj when the 
true worshiippers shall worship the Father in 
spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh 
mch to worship him, John 4 : 23. 



Motsbip. 



What is worship ? The word 
properly means to respect or honor. 
It is used to express both the 
inward sentiment and its outward 
manifestation. In the Enghsh 
courts of law the judge is ad- 
dressed as ^^ Your Worship/' that is 
your ^^ worth-ship/' He deserves 
honor because of the position he 
occupies, quite aside from consid- 
erations of his personal character. 
He is of worth as an important 
part of the machinery of justice. 



14 Morsbxp. 



The words in both the Hebrew 
and the Greek that are translated 
by ^ Worship'' have primary refer- 
ence to this showing of honor by 
bodily prostrations, as was the 
Oriental custom. Of course, be^ 
hind the physical act was supposed 
to be the reverential spirit. Wheri 
the psalmist sang, ^^Bow down to 
Jehovah in beauty of holiness/' 
his thought ran back of the con- 
secrated garments which the priests 
wore in the sacred services to the 
holiness which they emblematized^ 
and which was fitting when man 
approached to God. Our Lord's 
words to the Samaritan woman 
make the idea even more distinct ; 
^^The true worshippers shall wor- 
ship the Father in spirit and in 
truth.'' 



Morsbip* 15 



The essence of worship, then, is 
to be found in the inward rather 
than in the outward; it is spiritual. 
If this quahty be wanting, there is 
no true worship. Through what- 
ever forms are used, in speech or 
in vestments, or in ceremonies, 
the soul must get back to the 
essential thing — the approach of 
man^s spirit to Jehovah the In- 
finite Spirit. For example, you 
utter the words of the Lord^s 
Prayer; but the mere saying of 
them means nothing to you, and 
certainly means nothing to God, 
unless you have the real sense of 
speaking to the Heavenly Father. 
The branch and the leaf show that 
there is life in the tree, but there 
must be the life or there will be 
neither leaf nor branch. 



i6 Morsbip. 



We can worship, because we are 
spirits. In our present state of 
existence we are spirits inhabit- 
ing bodies. So we not infre- 
quently get the physical and the 
spiritual confused. Our prayers 
are put into words, our songs are 
melodious utterances, and thus we 
may forget that both the prayer 
and the praise get their real value 
from that which is behind them 
and is not uttered. It is neither 
the words nor the music that reach 
God, but the thought, the emotion, 
the desire, the purpose that is in 
the heart of the worshipper. The 
bird cannot worship, though its 
song rings forth most sweetly on 
the summer air. The human spirit 
has understanding, it can know 
God. It has personality, and so it 
can go to God as one person 



Timorsbfp* 17 



to another. It has power, the 
power of will, God-given, and so 
it can say to the Almighty, ^^My 
Father!'' 

True worship is just this — the 
recognition of God's being, the 
personal use of this fact, the ap- 
proach of the soul to God. It 
may have various forms of expres- 
sion, but that which gives it value 
is no more to be seen than the air 
which, drawn through the organ- 
pipes, produces the swelling and 
glorious harmony. 

When Jesus said that the true 
worshippers shall worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth, he 
indicated a most important ele- 
ment in worship, namely, that the 
Infinite Spirit whom we are called 
upon to adore is condescending 
and tender and lo^dng to his 



i8 



morsblp. 



children. In this view, worship is 
the going out of the human spirit 
in all its feebleness and insuffi- 
ciency to the Great Spirit who, 
while he rules over all worlds and 
is glorious in his holiness, is more 
ready to lend his ear and open 
his heart to the requests of men 
than earthly parents are to give 
good gifts to their children. At 
the same time we are to remember 
that petition is by no means the 
sole element in worship. The 
child does not come to the parent 
simply to ask for gifts, Your 
little one twines his arms about 
your neck because he loves you, 
and wants to feel, as he is sure he 
will feel, your love for him. 

Our Father who art in heaven, 
we do not simply ask gifts from 
thee to supply our great and varied 



morsbfp^ 



19 



need, hut we adore thee, we praise 
thee, we cast ourselves upon the 
hosom of thy love. Thus we wor- 
ship thee! 

Who should worship? All men. 
Indeed, somehow worship has been 
an instinct of human nature in all 
ages. This fact, by the way, 
throws back Hght upon the point 
we have just been considering. 
Man even in degradation is spirit, 
and the human spirit reaches out 
toward the Divine Spirit, as the 
poor, pale plant that happens to 
grow in a cellar will turn itself 
toward the light that may come 
through a narrow window. Nor- 
mally, the spirit in man must hold 
some sort of communion with the 
spirit of Deity. 

The greater part of this worship 
has been mistaken. Very much 



ao Morsbfp* 



of it has been barbarous and even 
brutal. Horrid rites have formed 
parts of the hturgies of savage 
peoples. On the other hand^there 
is something intensely pathetic 
in the thought of so many human 
souls, under varying conditions, 
and in widely divergent circum- 
stances, reaching out after God. 
It shows the need that exists in the 
very constitution of man^s nature. 
All men ought to worship. That, 
of course, means you, my reader. 
Are you willing to be less devout 
than the heathen? It is not that 
the form one uses is of any great 
consequence, but the spirit of the 
thing is essential for any right 
living. You are a sinner. A 
sense of this sinfulness, giving 
depth to your petitions, should 
ever be present as you come before 



Morsbip^ 



21 



God. This is of the very essence 
of true worship, for it recognizes 
the relation that exists between 
sinning man and the holy Jehovah. 
But there may go with it the glad 
sense that for your sinfulness there 
is forgiveness to you, being peni- 
tent, and that, in the place of the 
depravity of your nature, there 
may be the gracious renewal by 
the power of the Holy Spirit. You 
are in a body, and have, therefore, 
all the bodily limitations. You 
are living on this earth and in the 
midst of worldly surroundings and 
allurements. You have impera- 
tive duties laid upon you as a 
human being who, at present, is in 
this mortal state. All the more 
reason why you should lift this 
spirit that is you up to the Father 
of spirits. Your stay in this world 



22 Morsbip* 



is but temporary. You are to be 
in that life beyond forever. Wor- 
ship is the acknowledgment of 
that fact, both to yourself and to 
God. It is the assertion of the 
spirit as superior to all its material 
surroundings. It conduces to the 
disentanglement of the soul from 
the meshes of worldliness. It is a 
large factor in that life of the spirit 
here, which, some glad day not 
very far in the future, will melt 
into the blessed life of the world to 
come, as the glimmer of the dawn 
is lost in the noontide, splendor. 

If you who read these words 
ought to worship, so surely ought 
every one else on the round world. 
And it ought to be true worship 
that ascends from human souls. 
As it is now, 

'^The heathen^ in his blindness, 
Bows down to wood and stone/' 



Morsbtp^ 



23 



Hence the need that exists that 
the knowledge of the true God 
should be made known by those 
who have it to those who have it 
not. It will not do to say that as 
this heathen worship is so often 
sincere it is all that is necessary. 
We may not doubt that God 
makes all righteous allowance for 
the ignorance of men. But he 
does not mean that men shall 
remain ignorant. The Western 
world is giving to the Eastern 
those things in which our material 
civilization rejoices. It will be a 
grievous sin if the Christian nations 
do not give to the myriads that 
now sit in darkness that knowl- 
edge that will enable them to 
worship in spirit and in truth. 
^' The Father seeketh such to wor- 
ship him/^ And the beauty of it 



24 



Morsbip. 



is that the spirituahty of the 
worship that our Lord set forth 
adapts it to universal diffusion. 
It is Hke the hght, suited to every 
place, like the air, which all men 
must have. 

How shall we worship? The 
essential thing in worship, as we 
have seen, is the spirit of man 
approaching the Infinite Spirit, 
the Father God. But the ex- 
ample of Jesus himself shows us 
that the inner spirit does not for- 
bid the outward expression. In- 
deed, that example would indicate 
that there must be due utterance 
of worship. Who could draw 
nearer to the Heavenly Father 
than the Holy Son? Yet what 
devotional utterance is richer and 
deeper than that High Priestly 
prayer our Lord breathed forth on 



TKHorsbip^ 25 



that night in which he was 
betrayed? 

Let there be first, then, the 
worshipful spirit. It is man's 
heart ascending to God. ^^When 
I remember thee upon my bed 
and meditate on thee in the night 
watches/' said the psalmist. There 
was no word spoken, no human 
being to hear if words had been 
spoken. But through the silence 
of the night, even without articu- 
late voice, the heart of man went 
up to God. And this may be 
under any circumstances. In the 
crowded street, in the press of 
business, in the midst of some 
festive scene — anywhere where the 
Christian man may be found, 
there may be this real worship, as 
man's spirit recognizes the Al- 
mighty Spirit. 



26 



Morsbip. 



But while this is true, there will 
be an important part of worship 
lacking, if there is no outward 
expression. The spirit, of course, 
is the essential thing, but, after all, 
the spirit ought to express itself. 
The love of the child toward the 
parent is at the bottom of happy 
filial relations. At the same time 
the parent craves the expression 
of the child^s love. So the spirit 
of devotion in us ought to find voice . 
That is not wholly satisfactory wor- 
ship which, as Professor Huxley 
once phrased it, is ^^for the most 
part of the silent sort at the altar 
of the unknowable and unknown.'^ 
Nay, rather, we ^' will worship and 
bow down, we will kneel before 
Jehovah our Maker. '^ ^^We will 
enter into his gates with thanks- 
giving and into his courts with 



Morsbip^ 27 



praise/' ^^We will speak of the 
glorious honor of his kingdom, and 
talk of his power/' 

We worship in prayer and in 
praise. We can read the Word in 
a worshipful way — in the way, that 
is, of regarding it as the divine 
message sent in such shape that 
our hearts, as well as our heads, 
can take it in. We can put the 
spirit of worship into the most 
simple utterance, or into the most 
elaborate form. The question of 
forms of worship is comparatively 
a minor one. Forms help some, 
while they hinder others. But the 
use of forms and formalism are 
two quite distinct things. The 
form may be full of the true spirit 
of devotion, but formalism is as 
empty as a bubble, and as useless 
as the Mongol's praying wheel. 



28 Morsbtp^ 



How shall we worship? By mak- 
ing the outward act expressive 
of the true spirit that longs for 
God, that adores God, that, on the 
wings of praise and prayer, lifts 
itself up into the very presence of 
the Divine. But outward worship 
must not be looked upon as an end 
in itself. It is a means to an end. 
It will have in it, as constituent 
and formative parts, a number of 
elements. There will be Adora- 
tion; we are creatures, and we 
adore and magnify him who is our 
Creator. There will be Thanks- 
giving; we are recipients of our 
Father's unceasing bounty, and it 
would be ungrateful not to ac- 
knowledge our mercies. There 
will be Confession; we are sinners, 
and ought to confess our sins in 
penitence before God. There will 



XKIlorsbfp* 



29 



be Supplication; we ask a willing 
God to forgive us our sins, through 
Jesus Christ. There will be Peti- 
tion; we need all things, and must 
ask if we would receive. There 
will be Consecration; we owe serv- 
ice to our Master. There will be 
Intercession; we plead in behalf of 
others as well as for ourselves. It 
all involves penitence for our sins 
and faith in the grace and power 
of God. The unrepentant man 
cannot truly worship. The thank- 
offering of self-righteous Cain was 
an offense to God; the sacrifice of 
penitent Abel was welcomed. It 
was the Publican and not the 
Pharisee who went down to his 
house justified. 

When shall we worship? True 
worship being the approach of 
the human spirit to the Divine, it 



30 XRHorsbip. 



follows that we should be in a 
worshipful attitude of soul all the 
time. You would take it very 
hard if you thought that there 
was any hour the long day 
through when your little child was 
averse to coming into your com- 
panionship. ^^Pray without ceas- 
ing/' wrote the apostle. He 
meant that the believer should 
always be in the spirit of prayer, 
though not always uttering the 
words of prayer. 

In the nature of things we cannot 
be engaged at all times in outward 
worship. We cannot spend all 
our days in reading the Bible and 
uttering prayers and singing 
hymns. The work of the world 
could not be carried on in this 
fashion, and we must believe that 
God wants his work to go on 



Morsbfp. 31 



through the activity of his children 
as truly as he wants to receive 
their homage. We are not to 
neglect one part of life for the sake 
of the other. The perfect sphere 
holds two hemispheres in its circle. 
While, however, all this is true, 
it will be found that the observ- 
ance of certain times of worship is 
greatly conducive to the mainten- 
ance and the enlargement of the 
spirit of devotion. Our bodies 
require nourishment, and it is 
found that they flourish best when 
food is taken at certain approved 
times. We surely are not to be 
slaves to certain hours of devotion, 
like the monk in his cell. But 
just as surely, we are not to neglect 
reasonable times of worship if we 
expect the devotional spirit to 
grow strong and pervasive in our 
natures. 



32 TKaorsbfp. 



When shall we worship? Al- 
ways, if we mean the spirit that 
should animate us. Then there 
ought to be the private worship of 
each soul before his God day by 
day. The particular hour, the 
method, the duration — all these 
may safely be left to the individual 
conscience. But there is need that 
every individual, some time every 
day, should be alone with God. 
One cannot be strong for the 
battle of life, one cannot get the 
truest sweetness out of life, one 
cannot be in the best training for 
the life to come, unless day by day 
he stands face to face with his 
Maker, and talks with him as a 
man talketh with his friend. 

The same, in general, is true in 
regard to family worship. How 
can the parents expect their chil- 



XlClorsbfp* 



33 



dren to grow up with a devotional 
spirit if there are no family de- 
votions? Granted that we live in 
an age of hurry and bustle. All 
the greater is the need that the 
calming and strengthening influ- 
ences that come from the heavenly 
Father should be brought into our 
daily living. What better agency 
for this is there than family 
worship? 

Along this same line is indicated 
also the value of Sabbath worship 
in God's house. It is not that we 
are to make this do in the place of 
the worshipful spirit through the 
week. A devotional Sunday is no 
excuse for a secular Monday. But 
true worship in the sanctuary on 
the Sabbath will most surely hal- 
low and help all the week. As we 
go about our daily work, our 



34 



TRDlotsbtp* 



hearts can rise to God on the wings 
of the Sabbath petitions, and can 
sing over again the Sabbath songs, 
and can be fed upon the Sabbath 
teachings. There is an immense 
loss when Sabbath worship is 
neglected. 

Where shall we worship? Any- 
where, everywhere. The place 
matters not. Our Lord declared 
to the Samaritan woman that it 
was not Mount Gerizim nor even 
Jerusalem that made the worship 
true and pure, but that it was the 
worshipful heart. Wherever, then, 
man finds himself, he may worship 
God. 

'"By them that seek him he is found, 
And every place is hallowed ground.'^ 

True worship has gone up to God 
from the humble cottage, as well 
as from the stately cathedral; 



TKIlotsbip* 



35 



from the pallet of the pauper, as 
well as from the throne of some 
devout king; from the caverns of 
the catacombs, as well as from 
Csesar^s palace; from the martyr at 
the stake, as well as from the pros- 
perous Christian in his peaceful 
home ; from the lonely prairie and 
the still more lonely sea, as well as 
out of the midst of the bustle of 
the busy city; up from the con- 
fusion of the battlefield, as well as 
from the child at his mother's 
knee ; from the believer who faces 
some fierce temptation, as well as 
from the saint who, his conflict 
over and his victory won, is just 
closing his eyes to earthly things; 
from the Church of God, of every 
name and every nation, as it will 
ascend from the Church Triumph- 
ant, world without end. 



36 Worsbfp* 



This is one great beauty and 
value of the worshipful spirit. It 
may find its legitimate expression 
anywhere. It is not confined to 
place. It is an unspeakable ad- 
vantage to be able to worship God 
in his sanctuary, but if for any 
reason the privilege be denied 
one, he still can worship wherever 
he may chance to be. 

So by worship here on earth we 
prepare ourselves for the better 
worship in which we shall engage 
in the Heavenly Temple. The 
Scriptures describe that worship, 
as, of course, they must, in figures 
of speech. We have pictures of 
white-robed throngs, of harpers 
harping with their harps, we catch 
the echoes of the ceaseless alleluia ! 
Underneath all the imagery is the 
idea of that which is essential in 



TKIlotsbfp. 



37 



worship — the coming of the soul 
of man into communication with 
God, the Father of his spirit. The 
worship of heaven is essentially the 
same as the worship on earth. The 
beginner in music is exercising the 
same vocal organs with which, later, 
great audiences v/ill be entranced. 
There needs to be the earthly re- 
hearsal for the heavenly chorus. We 
may be very sure that he who wor- 
ships God here on earth, who finds 
any place holy ground, will feel 
very much at home when these 
earthly shadows have melted away 
in the brightness of the resurrec- 
tion morning, and he stands before 
the throne and joins with the holy 
angels and redeemed saints, as 
they shout the mighty chorus: 
^^ Worthy is the Lamb that was 
slain to receive power, and riches, 



38 



morsbfp. 



and wisdom^ and strength, and 
honor, and glory, and blessing/' 

Surely he who would live the 
spiritual life here and enter upon 
the perfect spiritual life, when this 
mortal tabernacle has been left 
behind, must give due emphasis to 
the element of worship. It is not 
all of the spiritual life, but there is 
no truly spiritual life for any 
human soul without it. 



2. flBoralitt* 



"And so the Word had breath, and wrought 
With human hands the creed of creeds j 
In loveliness of perfect deeds. 
More strong than all poetic thought; 

"Which he may read that binds the sheaf. 
Or builds the house, or digs the grave, 
And those wild eyes that watch the wave 
In roarings round the coral reef,^' 



Depart from evil, and do good, and dwell 
forevermore. Psalm 37 : 27. 



But love ye your enemies^ and do good 
and lend hoping for nothing again; and 
your reward shall be great, and ye shall he 
the children of the highest: for he is kind 
unto the unthankful and to the evil, 

Luke 6 :35. 



flDoralitig* 



What is Morality? The word is 
used here in its large sense, as 
when we speak of man as a moral 
being. We mean, thereby that he 
is something more than merely 
a physical or a rational being. 
He is capable of doing right, 
of being good. The word is used 
sometimes in a smaller sense, 
as when we say that the merely 
moral man lacks those high and 
large qualities that distinguish 
the spiritual man. True spirit- 



42 



/»oraUtp» 



uality certainly will express itself 
in many things in the terms and 
forms of common morality. But 
it will be more deeply rooted than 
mere natural morality, and will 
rise to higher and richer achieve- 
ments. The Christian man will 
not steal, nor commit adultery, nor 
murder a fellow being. But his 
morality in these particulars — or 
in others like them — by no means 
measures the full scope of his 
spiritual life. 

In other words, the righteous- 
ness required in God^s kingdom 
does not consist in natural moral- 
ity divorced from religion. There 
are those who claim that this 
divorce can be made. But such 
teachers have in view simply the 
relation of man to his fellows. By 
their supposition the relations man 



flDoralitp* 43 



sustains to God are shut out of the 
consideration. The principle of 
action that governs under these 
circumstances has received the 
name of ^^ altruism ^^ — ^^ regard for 
the other/' It is a good principle 
so far as it goes. But it is a very 
different thing from what the 
Scriptures term ^^ brotherly love.'' 
It does not go so far as that; its 
roots do not strike as deep, nor do 
its branches stretch as wide nor 
bear such abundant and rich fruit. 
It is of the utmost importance 
that men should live the righteous 
life here and now. We are here in 
this world, and are set in relation 
to our fellow men. We owe cer- 
tain duties, in consequence of this 
position and of these relations. 
But the point is that men are more 
likely to do their whole duty when 



44 /iDoraUtp* 



urged by the religious motive than 
when simply under the impulse of 
an amiable altruism. In other 
words, real morality cannot exist 
without religion, unless atheism is 
true. But atheism is not true. 
God is, and he is the moral gov- 
ernor of the universe. The moral- 
ity that has reference to him, as 
well as to man has in it depth 
and authority and power. God's 
claims upon men are fundamental 
and supreme, and true morality 
is the satisfaction of those claims. 
Hence it is easy to see that the 
spiritual life will express itself in 
holy living, for that is what true 
morality is. To say of any one, 
^^he is an immoral Christian,^' is 
to utter a contradiction in terms, 
and the conception is simply mon- 
strous. True morality is Chris- 



/Rotaliti?* 



45 



tianity in exercise. When, as the 
winter passes away and the spring 
comes on, the tree puts forth no 
leaves, we say that it is dead. So 
if we see no moral conduct, if there 
are none of those things that con- 
stitute what we call goodness, we 
are forced to say that there is no 
spiritual life. 

Morality, rightly understood, is 
not something meagre and limited 
to relations that are bound to pass 
away. It is large and full, for it 
has its source in the absolute per- 
fection of the divine nature. So 
it touches the whole of one's life, 
giving it fibre and completeness 
here on earth, and linking itself to 
the perfected sanctification of the 
kingdom that is to come. It is 
the exhibition— on a small scale, 
to be sure, and with many imper- 



46 aCiovalit^. 



fections — of the heavenly right- 
eousness of the saint. If you are 
going to a distant city, which you 
have never visited, it is somewhat 
of a satisfaction if you can see a 
picture of it. The picture is not 
the city, but it gives you some 
idea of what the city looks like, 
and so far is a help. 

To turn the thought around and 
see it from another side, it is to be 
said that it is a fatal mistake for 
anyone, however apparently zeal- 
ous, to hold that his religious 
experience is valid, if its effect is 
anything short of the love and the 
practice of all righteousness. 

The Standard of Morality. 
^^ Every lesser good has an essen- 
tial element of sin,'' said St. 
Augustine. The standard is the 
mountain top, not some far lower 



jflDoralit^^ 



47 



peak more conveniently reached. 
Morality is the good life, not the 
pretty good. It is the righteous 
life. Righteous means right, and 
when a thing is right it has no 
element of wrong in it. The 
slightest maladjustment of the 
telescope will introduce great 
errors into the astronomer's cal- 
culations. Men sometimes try to 
bring the standard down to the 
level of their attainments. That 
may enable them to indulge in a 
false pride, at least for a time, but 
it does not really change the 
standard. Conscience, after all, 
keeps calling in the ear even of the 
torpid soul, ^^ Higher yet, higher 
yet! Perfection be thy aim!'' 

God^s law is for us the standard 
of holiness, and this law is revealed 
in several ways. There is what 



48 



flDoraUti?* 



we call ^Hhe light of nature." It 
is that sense of right and wrong 
which exists in every human being. 
It is a very dim light in many 
cases — like the glowworm com- 
pared with the sun. We hardly 
can say that this light sets perfec- 
tion before man, and yet even 
the light of nature beckons him 
onward and upward. 

Still the fact remains that sin 
has perverted man's moral nature, 
has blinded his spiritual vision. So 
when left to the light of nature, he 
will not be making progress to- 
ward perfection. What is the 
general character of the nations 
that know not God? Who of us 
would be willing to become a citi- 
zen of Turkey or India or China? 

As this light is not sufficient, 
God has been pleased to reveal 



/Roralit^^ 



49 



himself clearly and distinctly in 

his Word. This Word is indeed a 

lamp to our feet and a light to our 

path. It is text book and guide 

book and law book. It unfolds 

the great principles that are of 

universal application to man's 

moral conduct. It is level to the 

understanding of the young, and 

its riches are exhaustless by even 

the most mature thought. 

Further, God has been pleased 

to make himself known by the 

ministry of the Holy Spirit, who 

carries the truth to the individual 

heart, and makes his impress on 

the individual life. 

" The Spirit breathes upon the word, 
And brings the truth to sight; 
Precepts and promises afford 
A sanctifying Hght.'' 

But the supreme revelation of 
God is in Jesus Christ. He came 



so /iDoralit^* 



down to our human level. We 
can know him as we cannot know 
the Infinite Spirit, and through 
him we can know the Infinite 
Spirit. ^^He that hath seen me/^ 
he himself said, ^^hath seen the 
Father.^' Christ shows us God's 
love, God's justice, God's right- 
eousness. Follow the life of the 
Lord as it is depicted in the gospel 
story. Throw upon that picture 
the light that shines out of epistle 
and Apocalypse. Thus see what 
that life was ; nay, rather, see what 
Jesus is. For he ever liveth. He is 
the same yesterday and to-day and 
forever. He shows us what holy 
living is. He becomes the stand- 
ard for all his followers. ^^Which 
of you convicteth me of sin?" he 
asked the Pharisees. They could 
not point out one slightest stain 



/IDotallt^* 51 



upon his character, nor indicate 
one shghtest failure in any of his 
acts. He was kind, he was loving, 
he was pure, he was obedient to 
his heavenly Father, he hated sin, 
he was just, he was patient, he was 
forgiving. 

He calls upon his followers to 
walk in his footsteps. He tells 
them to be perfect, even as the 
Father in heaven is perfect. In 
his life he pointed out the way of 
this perfection. His example lays 
obligation upon the believer's con- 
science. The standard is Christ's 
pure and perfect life. Until one 
has attained unto the likeness of 
that he has not reached the goal. 

It should be added that Christ is 
not only the standard and model 
of all true morality, but he is also 
the inspirer of it. His love in the 



52 moraitt^^ 



heart of the redeemed man is the 
impeUing power of spiritual moral- 
ity. The life the believer lives in 
the flesh is by the faith of the Son 
of God. 

Two or three things in particular 
may be noted here. This true 
moral standard will claim from us 
universal love and absolute truth. 
Is it right living to entertain a 
sentiment anything less than love 
for all the family of man, and to do 
anything less than all that is within 
one's power for the benefiting of 
mankind? We remember that 
Jesus in his last agony invoked the 
Father's forgiveness even upon his 
cruel enemies. Is it right living 
to be less than absolutely truthful 
in all one's relations to his fellows? 
Is there any place under this 
standard for tricks, for shams, for 



/IDoralfti?^ 53 



subterfuges^ for evasions? The 
crystal is pure to the very center 
of it. So ought a man's heart to 
be. Blessed is he who ^^speaketh 
the truth in his heart." 

Concerning all the duties that 
present themselves to us day by 
day — duties growing out of vari- 
ous circumstances and relations of 
our lives, it is to be said that we 
cannot feel ourselves justified in 
aiming at anything less than ab- 
solute right in the discharge of 
them. 

So to the question, What is the 
moral standard set before men? 
the answer must be, perfection, as 
that perfection is shown to us in 
God, revealed in Jesus Christ, and 
made plain to our hearts by the 
grace of the Holy Spirit. 



54 /Hioraltt^^ 



The universal obligation of mor- 
ality calls for our thought. There 
can be only one standard of pure 
morals for all subj ects of God's king- 
dom. The Constitution of the 
United States sets forth the prin- 
ciples of government that are ap- 
plicable throughout the Union. It 
is not adjustable to different uses 
in one or another of the sections of 
our country. So the divine law, 
which is the expression of God's 
nature, makes the same demands 
everywhere in God's kingdom. 
The obligations of morality lie 
upon every human being in all the 
circumstances and relations of his 
life. 

What is to be said of the fact 
that in the nature of things a very 
considerable proportion of our 
time must be given to the things of 



fiDotaiit^^ 55 



our daily life — the farm, the shop, 
the office, the school, the home? 
Is the obligation of morality off 
when we are engaged in these 
things that sometimes we unthink- 
ingly, but wrongly, call secular? 
That was a very mistaken division 
of life that was made quite early 
in the history of the Christian 
church, when some men were 
called ^^ religious,'' because they 
drew apart from the routine of 
home and of business, and gave 
themselves up to a round of devo- 
tions, while the rest were deemed 
^^ secular.'' That division, unfor- 
tunately, has not become entirely 
obliterated yet, though we have 
been coming to a better under- 
standing of the true condition. 
Morality, that is holiness, is as 
obligatory on one man as on 



$6 jflDoraliti?* 



another; it should be as dominant 
in our hours of labor as in our 
times of devotion. If one cannot 
live the good life as he walks 
behind the plow or swings the 
hammer, he cannot be really good 
at the altar of God. 

This thought needs emphasis. 
The idea of morality, as the Scrip- 
tures set it forth, righteousness ^ to 
use the more strictly Bible word, 
allows no artificial distinction be- 
tween the so-called religious and 
secular. That is, there may not 
properly be the parceling out of 
life into divisions, one of which is 
God's realm, while the other is our 
own. Jehovah will not divide his 
kingdom with anyone. Worship 
has its indispensable place, but it 
does not cover the whole surface of 
life. Men must pray ; the spiritual 



/Roraliti?* 57 



life cannot be sustained without 
prayer. But men must work at 
daily tasks as well. Is the spir- 
itual life to be confined only to the 
times of the bended knee? May 
it not permeate and glorify the 
hours when the muscles strain and 
the brain throbs with the work 
that one is doing? The injunction 
is just as absolute to love one's 
enemies and to lend and to do good, 
as it is to worship the Father of us 
all. If one is not spiritual as he 
goes about his daily tasks, he will 
not be truly spiritual when he bows 
the knee in the presence of his 
God. 

This is not to say that our right- 
eousness wins the kingdom and 
the crown. But we must remem- 
ber that the salvation which is in 
Jesus Christ, and which may be 



58 /IDoralit^. 



had for the taking, means the 
bringing of spiritual hfe, the hfe 
of Christ, into our hearts by faith. 
It is not salvation in our sins, but 
from our sins. It is not a salva- 
tion by and by — a sort of through 
ticket to heaven — but a present 
salvation. ^^ There is, therefore, 
now no condemnation to them that 
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the spirit.'^ 
The walking after the spirit all 
through the life is a most import- 
ant element in the salvation. The 
weight of its obligation ought to 
rest heavily on every Christian 
heart. Believing on Jesus Christ, 
his great love, our indebtedness to 
him, our desire to make progress 
in character-building, the impulse 
that ought to be in us to be good 
and to do good — all these cry aloud 



/IDoraltt^. 59 



to us to show our faith by our 
works. 

Moreover, it should be said that 
this obhgation does not rest solely 
upon the Christian. The absolute 
obligation of all moral excellence 
is universal and immutable. There 
is no one, whosoever he is and 
whatsoever may be his profession, 
who has any valid excuse for not 
making it his aim and his patient 
endeavor to live day by day the 
righteous life in all his relations, 
as well to God as to his fellow^ man. 

This morality is practical and 
practicable. The standard is as 
high as it can be. There is the 
mountain summit^ s white beauty 
up, up, up against the clear blue 
heights of the sky! ^^Be ye per- 
fect, even as your Father in 
heaven.'' Yet ideally this high 



6o /IDoralft^* 



standard is attainable. We are 
not to suppose that God puts any 
command upon his children that 
they cannot obey. That would 
not be like God. Jesus Christ 
came to earth and became our 
brother man. Where is the flaw 
in the life he lived during those 
human years? The ideal for man 
is to walk in his footsteps. 

In making instruments of pre- 
cision — measuring scales gradu- 
ated to ten-thousandths of an inch, 
for instance — perfection is the 
standard. It is true, of course, 
that absolute perfection is never 
reached. But the relative perfec- 
tion is higher when the absolute 
is the standard. Because the at- 
tempt is at absolute accuracy, 
that which is attained is higher and 
better than if the standard were 



/Koralft^* 



61 



lowered to meet the obstacles in 
the way. If the micrometer screw 
on the surveyor's level will not 
give an absolutely accurate read- 
ing, nevertheless it is so closely 
accurate that the work proves. 
Ideally, practical standard accur- 
acy is obtainable. 

So it is with this morality. It 
is practicable. We do not live our 
life in one piece; it is made up of 
a! succession of thoughts, motives, 
deeds. ^^The days of our years 
are threescore years and ten.'^ 
One attains seventy years of life 
by living a day at a time. What 
does that mean? Why this, that 
we can make to-day's life what it 
ought to be. This word one utters 
— shall it be a bad word or a good 
one? It certainly is within one's 
power to make it a good one. This 



62 /ftoralits* 



deed one is about to do — shall it be 
a deed to help or to hurt a brother 
man? One has the decision of 
that matter in his own hands. If 
one word can be made sweet and 
one act good, why not every word 
and every act? When we fall 
short, we are ourselves to blame. 
Will it be easy? In one sense, 
no. Any work that man under- 
takes that is of real value costs 
effort. We cannot get something 
for nothing in the moral sphere 
any more than in the material. 
No, it is not easy to be good. It 
requires watchfulness, painstaking, 
steady and persistent effort. It 
means that we may not suffer our- 
selves to be the sport of our chang- 
ing moods. It means that we may 
not relax our grasp. It means 
that it is woe to the sentinel who 
sleeps on the post of duty. 



jflDoralit^* 63 



Yet, on the other hand, it is 
easy, for this righteousness is in 
accordance with the eternal laws 
of our being, as made in the divine 
image. Moreover, in our effort 
after its attainment we can have 
the aid of the Divine Helper. It 
takes effort to acquire knowledge, 
but in a very true sense it is easier, 
in every way better, to know than 
to be ignorant. Man is made for 
God and is not really at rest until 
he is seeking to serve God. We 
are weak, but we can have the 
great delight and comfort of feeling 
that under our weakness is the up- 
lift of Almighty strength. The 
children of the Highest need never 
doubt the Father's readiness to 
give them power. 

In point of fact, multitudes of 
men have been enabled by divine 
grace — that grace which they 



64 /IDoralits* 



sought and took — to live a life of 
practical, though not perfect, holi- 
ness. The majority of these have 
not been famous. They have not 
been canonized as saints, but they 
have been true saints for all that. 
They have shown the effects of the 
spiritual life, its beautiful and 
blessed outworking, in their sim- 
plicity, their purity, their faithful- 
ness and their efficiency. This 
earth has been the richer for their 
being in it, and heaven has garnered 
them in its treasure house forever. 
Surely this morality, this right 
living, this holy conduct of the 
believer day by day, is a most im- 
portant element in the spiritual 
life. It is grounded in God's law; 
its standard is supreme ; its obliga- 
tion is universal ; by divine help it 
can be attained. No holy living 
— then no spiritual life. ^^By 
their fruits ye shall know them.'^ 



3. Service. 



*' The path of duty is the way to glory: 
He that walks it, only thirsting 
For the right, and learns to deaden 
Love of self, before his journey closes, 
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting 
Into glossy purples, which outredden 
All voluptuous garden roses. 
* * * 

" The path of duty is the way to glory; 
He that ever following her commands 
On with toil of heart and knees and Jiands, 
Thro^ the long gorge to the far light has won 
His path upward, and prevailed, 
Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled, 
Are close upon the shining table-lands, 
To which our God himself is moon and 
sun3 



Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy 
servant, and the son of thy handmaid; thou 
hast loosed my bonds. Psalm 116 : 16. 

And he said unto them. Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the Gospel to every 
creature. Mark 16 : 15. 



Service* 



''Let this avail, just, dreadful, mighty Gcd, 
This be not all in vain, that thrice ten 

years, 
Thrice multiplied by superhuman pangs. 
In hungers and in thirsts, fevers and cold, 
In coughs, aches, stitches, ulcerous throes 

and cramps, 
A sign betwixt the meadows and the cloud, 
Patient, on this tall pillar, I have borne 
Rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp, and 

sleet, and snow; 
And I had hoped that ere this period 

closed 
Thou would'st have caught me up into 

^ thy rest, 
Denying not these weather-beaten limbs 
The meed of saints, the w^hite robe and 
thepalm/^ 



68 



Service* 



This is a part of the picture that 
Tennyson draws of Saint Simeon 
Styhtes, a so-called saint of the 
early part of the Fifth century. 
His claim to sainthood, which 
comes out more fully as the poem 
goes on, consisted in his self-in- 
fliction of bodily tortures. The 
object of these, in his own words, 
was 

"to subdue this home 
Of sin, my flesh, which I despise and hate.'' 

In the process, as is obvious, he 
was of no use to the men of his 
time in the way of rendering them 
any practical service. On the con- 
trary, he held up before them 
through all those long and painful 
years an utterly mistaken ideal of 
what sanctity, the full-developed 
spiritual life, really is. Even if he 
lived according to his light, he was 



J 



Service. 



69 



far enough removed from that true 
love, both to God and man, that is 
the root of real Christian obedi- 
ence. It was a self-righteous ab- 
stinence from crime that was the 
controlling motive in him. Unlike 
that true saint, the apostle Paul, 
his life was not inspired by love to 
Christ and to his fellow men. As 
he failed conspicuously in observ- 
ing the ^^ second'' commandment 
in the law, so it is evident that 
the ^^ first and great command- 
ment^^ did not dominate his being. 
Compare with the existence of 
this mistaken mendicant, on his 
pillar sixty feet up in the air, the 
life of such a man as Martin Luther, 
who came out of a monk's cell and 
went diligently to work to teach 
his fellow men of the free salvation 
that is offered to everyone, through 



^o 



Service* 



faith in Jesus Christ. The founda- 
tion of the spiritual Hf e to him was 
justification by faith. But what 
man in all the history of Christian- 
ity (if we except the apostles) has 
been of greater service? 

Or, if a modern example is 
wanted, compare the piety of him 
who said 



" I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the 
light, 

Bow down one thousand and two hun- 
dred times, 

To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the 
Saints/' 

with the piety of the ^^ Apostle of 
the New Hebrides/' John G.Paton, 
through whose service such won- 
ders have been wrought in those 
barbarous islands. 

In the true spiritual life there 
must be the element of service. 



Service* 



71 



What is Service f To answer in 
a word we might say that it is put- 
ting Christianity to work. It is 
doing good to our fellow men for 
our heavenly Father's sake, for our 
Redeemer's sake. 

It is perfectly evident that 
Christianity must have this full 
element of usefulness if it is to be 
of large value. If the investiga- 
tions of physicists from Franklin 
to Faraday had found no practical 
outcome, electricity would not be 
the wonderful and useful power 
that it is to-day. The scientists 
made their very curious and inter- 
esting experiments, but they were 
matters of the laboratory and of 
scientific publications. Then came 
the era of the practical application 
of what had been made known 
through these researches. So elec- 



72 Service^ 



tricity is now at man's service, and 
its use is to be vastly extended be- 
fore the Twentieth century is old. 
Electricity at work is greatly 
better than electricity in the theo- 
retical and experimental stage. 

Christianity has enormous 
latent power in it which ought to 
be put to work. The Christian 
man ought to be of service along 
Christian lines. The believer in 
Jesus ought to make his Chris- 
tianity tell in all that he does. 
And there ought to be more than 
the unconscious influence that goes 
forth from every good life. Of 
course, what a man is, is the first 
consideration. But what a man 
does is also of vast importance. 
One ought to try consciously to do 
good. His doing forms no small 
part of what he is, for doing is a 



Service^ 



73 



part of worthy being. The hermit 
in his cave or on his lofty pillai is 
not an ideal representative of the 
spiritual life. There ought to be 
worship and there ought to be 
holy character; but there ought 
also to be Christian work. 

The kind of work that is done is 
not perhaps of so much conse- 
quence as the fact that faithful 
work is done in whatever sphere 
Providence indicates, for there is 
room for many kinds of labor in 
God's great workshop. But the 
service that really forms a part of 
the spiritual life is work done for 
God. We are not to restrict it to 
what we sometimes call religious 
work, yet the fact is that Chris- 
tians too often fail in doing the 
distinctively religious work they 
ought to do. 



^ 1 ii fi ii i i ifcinMi ii ii i ii Mi iii iii wH iiBi l i ii nmi ii M i T i w i - 

74 Service^ 



It is a fair designation of service 
as a part of the spiritual life to say 
that it is anything that will tend 
to the moral uplift of mankind. 
Our material advancement has not 
a little influence upon moral con- 
ditions. It is easier for men to 
live wholesome lives in America 
than in Turkey. But these material 
things may be left rightly enough 
to take care of themselves. The 
Christian man is to do what he can 
to make the world morally better ; 
and he is to do this as in the sight of 
God. He is to do it because God^s 
way of bettering the world and 
bringing in the heavenly kingdom 
is through human instrumentality. 

One may be engaged in this serv- 
ice without having it always in 
distinct consciousness. As the ar- 
tisan toils at his dailv task he need 



Service; 



75 



not be all the time thinking, ^^I 
am doing this for the sake of my 
wife and children/' Yet there can 
be no question that such thought 
will nerve him for the work, and 
steady him in it, and help him over 
its hard places. If one — teaching 
the ignorant, ministering to the 
needy, telling the story of the love 
of God — feels, ^^I am doing this 
service for Christ^s sake,'' then 
there is a charm to the work that 
there can not be otherwise. Yet, 
even when this consciousness does 
not rise into very great distinct- 
ness, there may be the rendering 
of excellent service. 

This service for Christ's sake is 
fuller and richer than what the 
philanthropic philosopher calls 
^'altruism." It is altruism, but it 
is more; it has a stronger and 



76 Service* 



more enduring impulse working in 
it than simply a regard for ^Hhe 
other man/' The Christian man 
looks upon his fellows not simply 
as human beings who are to be the 
objects of his care, but as brother 
men who are children of the one 
Father, and whom he loves because 
God loves them. Moonlight is 
charming, but it is a reflected light, 
and it is pale in comparison with 
the glorious effulgence of the sun 
whose rays are life-giving. 

It is Christian service that is to 
save the world. Of course the 
power is of God, but at the same 
time the instrumentality is man^s. 
In order that the water may flow 
into the city for its drink there 
must be the system of pipes. That 
the electricity may come from the 
power-house to light your home 



Qcvvicc. 



77 



there must be the conducting wke. 
The pipes are not the water and 
the wire is not the electricity, yet 
each is necessary in its place for 
the accomplishment of the object 
in view. So God is doing his work 
in bringing the world to himself 
through the agency of men. They 
must carry the water of life to their 
fellows that men may no longer 
thirst ; they must make the light of 
life to shine upon the benighted 
that men may walk no longer in 
darkness. 

When we talk of ^^ saving the 
world '^ we must remember that 
much is included. There will be 
^^ foreign missions/' of course; but 
there will be much else also. The 
needs of humanity are very great. 
Even in so-called Christian coun- 
tries, even in our own most highly 



78 Service* 



favored land, how multiplied and 
pressing are human wants — those 
moral wants of which their sub- 
jects are not always conscious, 
those material wants which have 
their influence on moral being. 
City slums call for a material as 
well as a moral purification. How 
can moral transformation be ex- 
pected among the members of a 
family where all, without regard 
to age or sex, must herd together, 
day and night alike, in one room? 
Christian service, for one thing, 
will set itself to do away with the 
squalor that prevails to such a 
frightful extent where population 
is congested. Tenement house re- 
form and kindred philanthropies 
have a strong claim upon the spirit 
of Christian service. Ignorance is 
to be enlightened. The enormous 



Service* 



79 



evil of intemperance is to be con- 
quered with spiritual weapons 
wielded by Christian men. Social 
immoralities, commercial dishon- 
esties, political chicaneries, are 
barriers across the path of prog- 
ress; they are a menace to peace 
and purity. Christian service is 
the true recourse for their extir- 
pation. 

Then, while there are these 
enormous evils at home, there are 
no fewer nor smaller ones abroad. 
The heathen nations still sit in 
darkness and in the region and 
shadow of death. When the best 
that truth warrants has been said 
as to the nature of the heathen 
religions, when whatever there was 
of beauty in the character of such 
a religious teacher as Gautama 
Buddha, for instance, has been 



So Service* 



admitted, the fact still remains 
that these religions are grievously 
defective, where they are not 
utterly erroneous. The fact re- 
mains that the heathen are sunk 
in ignorance and superstition and 
unutterable degradation. What 
light they have is a glimmer, not a 
radiance. They cannot be bet- 
tered along the line of their ancient 
faiths. They need — they sorely 
need Christianity. The ^' Light of 
Asia'' is but dimness in the clear 
shining of the Sun of Righteousness. 
Jesus Christ is the true light to 
enlighten men. 

Now these evils at home, this 
heathenism abroad, will not right 
themselves. The darkness of 
night does not change itself into 
the morning. It is only when the 
sun climbs the eastern sky that the 



Service* 



8i 



day breaks and the shadows flee 
away. Is ignorance going to make 
itself wise? Is degradation going 
to lift itself into cleanness and com- 
fort? Is lust going to evolve itself 
into purity, or intemperance into 
sobriety? Is political chicanery to 
be expected to transform itself into 
civic righteousness? Is heathen- 
ism of itself to rise out of its hoary 
superstitions and its abominable 
idolatries and its dreadful cruel- 
ties into the power and purity and 
peace of the religion of Jesus 
Christ? We know that this can 
never be. All along the history of 
the w^orld, the work of betterment 
has been carried on through the 
agency of men. Our Lord Jesus 
died for men and brought into the 
darkened and sin-stricken world 
eternal redemption. But he did 



82 



Service* 



not stay here to bring men to him- 
self. He went back to heaven 
where he was before^ but he left a 
parting command to his followers, 
^^Go ye into ail the world, and 
preach the Gospel to every crea- 
ture.'^ And the world is better 
to-day than it was nineteen hun- 
dred years ago, because the fol- 
lowers of Jesus have been faithful 
in some measure to his command. 
Just in the proportion in which the 
glad tidings of eternal life in Jesus 
Christ have been heralded up and 
down the earth, has mankind been 
blessed. The measure is the faith- 
fulness of human service. 

But how much more might have 
been accomplished had Christian 
people been more faithful. How 
much more rapid and large had 
been the progress of all good had 



Service* 



^s 



there been more Christian service ! 
The time of the world^s Chris tian- 
ization is in the hands of Christ's 
followers. It is the question of 
their faithfulness. 

Who ought to he of service? 
Everyone ! But when we say that, 
we make our answer so general 
that it is to be feared that it loses 
much of its force. Yet it is the 
simple fact that upon every man 
rests the obligation of service, that 
is of work to be done that shall be 
to the good of his fellows and to 
the glory of God. There is no 
possible reason that can be given 
that will exempt any one 
from being of use in the world — 
some moral use among men. The 
more he knows and the higher his 
character, the weightier is his 
obligation in this direction. 



84 Service^ 

Of course, no one person can do 
everything. ^^ There are diversi- 
ties of gifts/ ^ As there are vari- 
ous needs in the world, so God has 
bestowed various endowments 
upon men, that the lack of one 
may be made good by the supply 
of another. Each one is to work 
along the line of his own aptitudes 
and in adaptation to the circum- 
stances in which he is placed. 
When it was proposed to build a 
railroad through one of the caiions 
of the Rocky Mountains the sur- 
veyors had to be slung from the 
top of the precipices do^vn into 
the gorge that they might make 
their measurements. Certainly 
the men who hung there in mid- 
air while they ran their levels, had 
as much share in the building of 
the road as those who, later on, 



Service. 85 



cut the shelves in the rocky walls^ 
or laid the rails on the precarious 
roadbed. A great work may be 
carried on under the intelligent 
direction of one man, but no great 
work is accomplished by the un- 
aided labor of one man. The 
greater the work is, the more 
varied are its details, the greater 
will be the number of individuals 
required to carry it to completion. 
No one can do everything, but 
everybody can do something. The 
practical trouble is that there are 
very many who hardly do anything. 
The Church of Christ is composed 
of those who professedly are inter- 
ested in their fellow men, profess- 
edly are concerned to extend 
Christ^s kingdom in the world. As 
a matter of fact what do we find 
true of these people in regard to 



86 Service* 



service? Thanks be to God, we 
find some who are of use. There 
are faithful ones everywhere. But 
how many Christian people there 
are who, when they have attended 
the sanctuary exercises — once, 
shall we say? — on the Sabbath, 
seem to think that they have dis- 
charged the full tale of their re- 
ligious duty. It is something, to 
be siu'e, to attend the sanctuary. 
It will be not a little if one will 
influence others to come with him 
to God^s house. And, by the way, 
there is more that might be done 
in this direction than sometimes 
we imagine. But after all, in the 
average case it would seem as if 
one might do more than attend 
church on Sunday. Where would 
be the Sunday school and the other 
organizations that a church uses 



Service^ 



87 



in its work, if this were the hmit of 
the activity of all its members? 

Of course, all Christian service 
is not confined to what we call 
church work. The field is vast, 
the specific needs are many. The 
stress of the question is not so 
much as to the particular piece of 
service, but whether one is doing all 
he might. There are providential 
limits which must be regarded. 
God gives us work to do that some- 
times is very different from what 
we would have chosen for our- 
selves. But our heavenly Father 
is not a hard Master; he does not 
exact from us that which we are not 
able to render. Yet the fact re- 
mains that a very large number of 
those who bear Christ's name and 
who professedly are devoted to his 
service, do little compared with 



88 



Service* 



what they should do — in praying, 
in giving, in working in any way 
— for the advancement of his 
kingdom. 

Reader, will you not make this 
personal, and ask yourself in all 
honesty this question — "Am I 
doing what / ought to do in the 
service of Jesus Christ, who loves 
me so, who has done so much for 
me, who depends on me to do my 
share of good in this needy world?^' 

The hermit on his pillar is not a 
type of symmetrical spiritual life. 
There is life in him, but it is 
fevered and unwholesome. He 
puts the emphasis in the wrong 
place. His style of piety is the 
outcome of overstrung emotion, 
uncontrolled by Christian intelli- 
gence. On the other hand there 
may be such a development of 



Service* 89 



active service, such a rushing to 
and fro in a sort of rehgious bustle, 
that men will neglect worship and 
fail to walk with God. 

Yet even as we nourish our 
bodies that they may be fit to do 
the work that is required of them, 
so our spiritual life is not full and 
complete unless — as one's con- 
science under divine direction dic- 
tates — it puts its force into service 
for God our Father in the person 
of men our brothers. 



4. Communion^ 

^^ Speak to Hirrij thou, for he hears ^ and 
spirit with spirit can meet — 

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer 
than hands or feet.V 



He that dwelleth in the secret place of the 
Most High shall abide under the shadow of 
the Almighty, Psalm 91 : 1. 

But thoUj ivhen thou yrayest, enter into 
thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, 
fray to thy Father which is in secret; and 
thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward 
thee openly. Matthew 6 : 6. 



Communion. 



I have in mind the memory of 
one who was very dear to me, an 
accomphshed musician, who, long 
years ago, went from the melodies 
of earth to where the ^^ harpers are 
harping with their harps /^ The 
great charm of his performances 
on piano or organ was that, in 
addition to his thorough technical 
mastery of the art, he had the soul 
of music in him, and put so much 
of feeling into his rendering of song 
or hymn or oratorio. That subtle 



94 



Communion* 



element of feeling — so impossible 
to define, and yet so very real — 
made him the complete musician 
that he was. Without that, his 
correctness and readiness would 
have lacked a crowning excellence. 

What would the spiritual life be, 
without communion with God, 
to the devout soul? The believer 
must live the holy life, or we shall 
be sure that he is not really a 
believer. He must engage in ac- 
tive and efficient work for God, or 
we shall be compelled to say that 
there is no life in him. But how 
shall he have this life unless he 
get it from communion with God. 

What is Communion f By deri- 
vation the word means what we 
have in common with another. 
It is fellowship with the Almighty 
Father. It is the human soul, not 



Communion. 9s 



simply coming close to, but com- 
ing into touch with the Divine. Is 
it not wonderful that this can be? 
Yet so lovingly does our Father 
deal with us that he has made it a 
fact of Christian experience. 

Communion is not the same as 
worship. It lies back of worship 
and occasions it. The musician to 
whom reference was made could 
give such varied expression to his 
performances, because there was 
the very soul of music in him. Of 
course, this musical feeling was 
increased as he gave expression to 
it. As in so many other things, 
there was a reflex influence. The 
musical feeling called for expres- 
sion, and the expression quickened 
and enlarged and developed the 
musical feeling. The healthy body 
demands physical exercise, and 



96 



Communton* 



exercise increases health. True 
spiritual life finds a part of its 
expression in worship, and then 
the worship stimulates the spir- 
itual life. The fundamental thing 
is the spirit behind the act of wor- 
ship, and that spirit is a sense of 
communion with God. 

The consciousness of God's pres- 
ence will be an essential element 
in this communion. The best 
thought of the present day sees 
God more pervasively and con- 
stantly in his world than men have 
done in some former generations. 
True science discovers God at 
work now in the material world, as 
he has been through the long ages 
of the past. His power, his wis- 
dom, his skill, can be understood 
^'from the things that are made.'' 
We can see him, if we will, in the 



Communion* 



97 



sunshine and in the rain, in the 
plant, in the tree, in the animal, 
in the sky and in the ocean ; in the 
light and in the darkness; in the 
seasons as they come and go. 

'These as they change, Almighty Father, 

these 
Are but the varied God. The rolling year 

is full of thee.'! 



If God is so truly in the material 
world, he must be at least as truly 
in the realm of spiritual being. 
God is spirit, filling all space and 
all time. To be in communion 
with him is, first of all, to recognize 
that great fact. It is to know that 
if we speak to him he will hear. 
Yes, it is to know that before we 
speak he understands our thought 
afar off. So we are intellectually 
in communion with him. 



9^ Communfom 



What we know of communion 
with our fellow men will help to 
make clear the idea of communion 
with God. There are those among 
the men with whom we come in 
contact, with whom we have little 
especially in common. Our occu- 
pations, our tastes, our ambitions 
do not run along the same lines. 
On the other hand there are those 
with whose tastes, w^hose pursuits, 
whose mental and moral charac- 
teristics, we are in complete sym- 
pathy. With such we can have 
communion because of these many 
things which we have in common. 
So when we have a sense of God's 
presence in all that pertains to our 
spiritual being, when our views of 
his greatness and goodness and 
holiness are right, when we realize 
his claims upon our love and serv- 



Communion* 99 



ice, then there are things in com- 
mon between us, and we can, and 
instinctively do, enter into com- 
munion with him. We enjoy the 
things which he enjoys. We think 
his thoughts after him. We are 
impelled to try to do those things 
which shall build up his kingdom. 
We love him with all tenderness. 
We rejoice in the sense of his 
friendship. 

Nor is this mere ecstatic devo- 
tion, that spends itself in the en- 
joyment of the hour. It is the 
great current that majestically 
swings through the ocean depths, 
not the billows that chase each 
other over its surface and dash 
and die upon the shore. Neither 
is it an asceticism that takes one 
away from participation in the 
business and cares, and even en- 

L.oFC. ■ 



loo Communion. 



joyments of the daily life. Yet 
he who is in real communion with 
God, how is he lifted up above any 
sordid groveling to the gains of 
earth, above the fascinations of 
its low pleasures, above the temp- 
tations of its mean ambitions, even 
above the sense of drudgery in its 
lawful occupations! His spiritual 
life is fed, as the river gets its being 
from the crystal springs that break 
out from the hillside. God lives 
in him and he lives in God. In a 
very true and blessed sense he and 
God are at one. 

The need of communion. For 
one thing, communion is behind all 
true worship. The utterance that 
is addressed to God is hollow 
mockery — yes, it is an insult to 
the divine majesty, unless it is the 
expression of the real feeling of the 



Communion* 



lOI 



heart. That our worship may be 
what it should be, there must dwell 
in the heart the sense of the reality 
of God, of his sympathy with his 
children, of his readiness to hear 
and to answer their prayers. So, 
in point of fact, the believer comes 
to the place in his experience 
where prayer has passed from 
being an act, or even a habit, into 
being a state of the soul — always 
in prayer, or at least in the prayer- 
ful condition; always in commun- 
ion with God. It is to the spirit 
what that subtle something we 
call vitaUty is to the physical 
frame. ^\Tien vitality is low the 
body can put forth but little effort. 
There must be vitality in some 
degree or the body dies and 
molders into dust. 



102 



Communion* 



Looking from another point of 
view, it is to be said that commun- 
ion with God is the food of the 
soul. The soul must be nourished 
just as truly as the body. Picture 
to yourself a soul that holds no 
communion with God. Can that 
soul have spiritual life? What 
becomes of the mind when it is 
given no true mental nourishment? 
Where one will not read nor study 
nor think, his mind grows vacuous ; 
mental ability decays. In pro- 
portion this is true if suitable 
mental nourishment is not admin- 
istered. So with the soul. It can 
hold communion with God; it 
must hold communion with God 
or it dies. Everlasting death — 
what is it but that ^^ eternal sin^^ 
which forever holds the unrepent- 
ant sinner away from God, and so 



Gommunion* 105 



out of communion with him? But 
the soul that is in communion 
with the Heavenly Father brings 
thereby divine life into itself^ and 
it grows and flourishes the more 
close and continuous is that com- 
munion. Thus, the soul partakes 
of the hidden manna ; it eats of the 
fatness of God's house; it drinks 
from the river of God's pleasure. 

Communion conduces to worthj^ 
Christian life. It lifts one's Chris- 
tianity out of formality and makes 
it real. So skilfully does the 
artist do his work sometimes, that, 
for a moment or two, a wax figure 
will deceive our eyes. But the 
thing can neither hear nor speak 
nor walk, and we very soon per- 
ceive that it is only an image. It 
is clever as a counterfeit, but it is 
useless as a person. There often 



104 



Communion* 



is the counterfeit of the Christian 
life. Outwardly it deceives, but 
there is no life in it. Reality of 
Christian experience comes only 
from communion with God. It is 
this real religion that is of avail 
for the individual; it is this that 
inures to the lasting benefit of 
mankind. 

Indeed; one cennot put too high 
a value upon this reality of Chris- 
tian experience. If our Chris- 
tianity is not real it is absolutely 
worthless. If one is a Christian 
only in pretence, or in some formal 
way, he is what our Saviour called 
^^a branch that is withered.^' 
Neither the world here nor 
heaven hereafter has any use 
for withered branches. Cut them 
off! But God has great use — 
great use here and glory un- 



Communion* 



105 



speakable hereafter — for the real 
Christian. The real Christian is 
he who lives in communion with 
his Heavenly Father, and so brings 
the divine life into his being, to 
animate and inspire his activities, 
to sweeten and beautify his daily 
duties, to make him glad through 
all his mortal years, to ripen him 
for the eternal and blissful ages of 
sinless intercourse with God when 
he shall see Him face to face and 
know even as also he is known. 

Hindrances to Communion. — 
Alas ! that these should be, but it is 
only too plain that they exist. 

At the bottom of them is a want 
of piety. There is in too many of 
us a lack of a true sense of spiritual 
things. Why are there so many 
people in the world who are not in 
any way musical performers? For 



io6 



Communion. 



the simple reason that they have 
not the sense of harmony. Melo- 
dious sounds bring to them no 
especial sense of pleasure. So if 
our sense of spiritual things is 
feeble, in just that measure it 
hinders communion. ^^He that 
Cometh to God must believe that 
HE is.'^ That means vastly more 
than the mere intellectual acknowl- 
edgment of the divine Being. It 
means that one feels God, knows 
him, hears his voice in the soul. 

Now if we are absorbed in 
material things, those things that 
pertain to this life only, then God, 
in that very fact, is shut out of the 
soul. If one loves these things 
that perish, loves them supremely, 
then his love cannot rise to God. 
The impenitent man cannot have 
communion with God. That is an 



Communion. 



awful thought, but it simply corre- 
sponds to a dreadful fact. If one 
loves his sins more than he loves 
his Saviour, how can he enter into 
communion with the Holy One? 
^^What fellowship hath light with 
darkness, or what concord hath 
Christ with Belial?^' There is 
nothing in common between the 
impenitent soul and the Saviour 
God. While the prodigal re- 
mained in the far country he could 
have no communion with his 
father. Alas, that so many men 
so little realize what it is not to be 
in communion with the Father in 
heaven. What is it for the lungs 
to pant in a vacuum, for the 
stomach to crave food when there 
is famine in the land, for blinded 
eyes to long for the sweet light of 
day that shall nevermore shine 



io8 



Communion* 



upon them? Yet these are but 
feeble figures of what it is for the 
human soul to shut itself out from 
communion with God. 

Of course, the Christian believer, 
in the very fact of his penitence 
and faith, comes into something 
of communion with his Lord and 
Master. It is evident, however, 
that there may be degrees in this 
experience. One may sip of the 
cooling spring, but the thirsty 
man will drink deeply of its crystal 
flood. The question of the meas- 
ure of our communion is a ques- 
tion of the hindrances that we 
permit to stand in our way. Dis- 
trust is a hindrance. ^^ According 
to your faith be it unto you,'' is 
our Saviour's word to every soul. 
If our faith is feeble, then God is 
not as real to us as otherwise he 



Communfon* 109 



might be. ^^Lord, increase our 
faith/ ^ Spiritual indolence is a 
hindrance. The sluggard farmer 
does not reap abundant harvests. 
Christ asks of our somnolent souls, 
^' Could ye not watch with me one 
hour?'' Self-dependence is a 
hindrance to the freest and fullest 
communion with the Heavenly 
Father. ^^The servant is not 
greater than his master.'' We are 
not self-nourished, but must go 
to the fountain to drink. And 
worldliness is a hindrance. ^The 
cares of this world, and the deceit- 
fulness of riches, and the lust of 
other things, entering in, choke 
the Word, and it becometh un- 
fruitful." If one insists on walk- 
ing on the ground he cannot soar 
into the ambient air. 



no 



Communion* 



But these hindrances, of what- 
ever sort, can give way. The 
sense of spiritual things can be 
cultivated. Our communion with 
God can be enlarged. The hin- 
drances are all on the human side. 
If our communion is at any time 
meagre, it is not God^s fault. 
When the feast is spread, one has 
only himself to blame if he goes 
away hungry. We may go to the 
divine fountain and drink and 
drink again, and the fountain will 
still run free and full. We can 
come into closer and ever closer 
fellowship with our Father, until, 
as we cry, ^'My soul thirsteth 
for God, for the living God,^' 
the echo rings clear in the longing 
heart, ^'I know whom I have 
believed.'' 



Communion. 



So we are ready to understand 
more clearly the effect of com- 
munion. In a very true and posi- 
tive sense this communion with 
God is established whenever any- 
one repents of his sins and believes 
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Some- 
times it is with great rapture that 
one comes into the consciousness 
of the presence of God and of his 
wonderful love. But the general 
law of God's kingdom holds here 
as elsewhere. That law is growth. 

So it comes about, for one thing, 
that as the believer enters more 
and more into communion with 
the Heavenly Father, he has a 
growing consciousness of the di- 
vine presence. The unseen God 
becomes more and more real to 
him. See how much this means: 
You are a believer, and you have 



112 



Communfon* 



a consciousness of God^s presence. 
A temptation fronts you, but you 
are in communion with him who 
was tempted and sinned not; in 
his strength you make vahant 
battle and gain the victory. Some 
black- winged sorrow swoops down 
upon you, and you are well-nigh 
overborne. But you are close to 
the Father and the Everlasting 
Arms stretch under you, and you 
are lifted above the sorrow into 
divine peace. Some duty is to be 
done that calls for large effort. 
You are weak, how can you engage 
successfully in so great a task? 
As you take the work to God you 
hear him say, ^^My strength is 
made perfect in weakness,'' and 
you go singing to your toil. Some 
joy crowns your days, and because 
you are near to God, in touch with 



Communion. 



him, the joy is more beautiful and 
glad. 

Communion with God beautifies 
and gladdens the Christianas life. 
The closer one is in fellowship with 
the Divine Father the more lovely 
his life will be, for then there 
will be shining upon him, even 
amid the shadows of this earthly 
state, great beams of glory from 
the Sun of Righteousness. 

Further, this communion is the 
animating element in a piety that 
is simple and sincere and sym- 
metrical. It gives a sanctity that 
is not morbid, but thoroughly 
healthful. When one is in com- 
munion with God he easily learns 
what is the right thing to do under 
the varying circumstances of life. 
He comes to look at things from 
the divine, rather than from the 



114 



Gommunion* 



human point of view. When the 
Pharisees were astonished at the 
abihty and boldness of Peter and 
John, they took knowledge of them 
that they had been with Jesus. The 
graciousness and the power of the 
Master were made evident in the 
disciples. When one lives in com- 
munion with God, God's light 
shines in his eyes, and God's love 
is vibrant in his voice, and God's 
grace spreads a halo about his 
whole being. 

And what is this communion 
but the bringing of heaven down 
to earth, the foretaste here and 
now of immortal blessedness? The 
Christian believer, even while he 
is in this earthly life, can enjoy 
something of the bliss of heaven. 
The cupful is not the fountain, 
to be sure, but it clearly enough 



Communion* us 



indicates the quality of the foun- 
tain. The real joy of heaven is to 
be with God, forever away from 
sorrow and sin and death. It will 
be perfect communion — the seeing 
face to face, the knowing as also 
we are known. Just so far as the 
Christian comes into communion 
with God, now is he realizing the 
blessedness of the heavenly state. 

" Still, still with Thee ! when purple morn- 
ing breaketh, 
When the bird waketh, and the shad- 
ows flee ; 
Fairer than morning, lovelier than the 
dayhght, 
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am 
with Thee. 

* * * 

"Still, still with Thee! as to each new- 
born morning 
A fresh and solemn splendor still is 
given, 
So doth this blessed consciousness awak- 
ing. 
Breathe, each day, nearness unto Thee 
and heaven. 



ii6 Communion* 



"So shall it be at last, in that bright morn- 
ing, 
When the soul waketh, and life's 
shadows flee; 
Oh! in that hour, fairer than daylight 
dawning, 
Shall rise the glorious thought, I am 
with Thee!'' 

Here is the essential vivifying 
power in all spiritual life. With- 
out it experience will be um^eal, 
and daily living barren. Our re- 
ligion will be a form and not a true 
substance, it will be a name and 
not a force. But we can have this 
communion if we will, and just to 
the measure that we will. We are 
not straitened in God. 

Let it now be said, as this at- 
tempt to set forth the true nature 
and contents of the Spiritual 
Life closes, that it is the life which 
every one ought to live. It is the 



Communion* 



117 



symmetrical life, the only life 
which is worthy of the immortal 
soul. It is the life which worships, 
acknowledging God in public and 
in private. It is the life which is 
good, for its texture is wrought of 
love and obedience. It is the life 
which serves, doing good to all 
men as far as opportunity permits. 
It is the life which is hid with 
Christ in God. There is the seat 
of its activity and power, and 
there begins the shining path 
which leads on and up to endless 
glory. 

Friend, live it. 



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